It is common practice in the oil and gas industry to conduct temperature measurements during the drilling of a well to acquire data relating to both the bottom hole static temperature and the bottom hole circulating temperature of the well to properly plan and ensure the successful completion of a subsequent cementing operation wherein a tubular conduit, generally referred to as "casing," is cemented into the well bore. As temperature is a critical factor in the type of cement and additives employed in a particular operation, as well as in the setting time of the cement, such data is extremely important to the well operator.
There are two ways in which this temperature data is normally acquired. First, a mechanical or electronic temperature gauge may be incorporated into the bottom of the string of drill pipe through use of a gauge carrier. The second alternative is to deploy a wireline having a temperature transducer at the bottom thereof into the well bore. As oil wells are cemented deeper, however, the hydrostatic pressures encountered at the bottom of these deep wells exceed the limits of available temperature gauges and wireline equipment. As a result, bottom hole circulating and bottom hole static temperature data acquisition efforts needed to complete a successful cement job quite often end with the failure of the temperature gauge or wireline equipment employed, with a resulting lack of necessary data. Thus it became apparent to the inventors of the invention disclosed and claimed herein that a solution to this dilemma must be found.